Medicine: Surgeon in Court

When surgeons disagree about an operation, or when hospital authorities
accuse a surgeon of unprofessional practice, the public ordinarily
hears nothing of it. The medical profession has a code of silence that
covers nearly all such cases. But last week Pontiac, Mich. (pop.
80,000) was treated to a hair-raising public airing of charges and
countercharges exchanged between Pontiac General Hospital and a surgeon
recently suspended from its staff. The case badly shook the town's
confidence in its appointed healers, and it gave the rest of the U.S.
something to think about.